Lawyers get $508K in parents' Western Pennsylvania psychiatric shooting settlement

A judge has awarded $508,000 to the attorneys who represented the parents of a therapist who was fatally shot by a psychotic gunman at a western Pennsylvania psychiatric hospital in their lawsuit against the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Harry and Mary Schaab's lawsuit against UPMC settled for $1.5 million, but they wound up suing the law firm that represented them, Farrell & Reisinger, because the Schaab's also wanted to sue the gunman's estate and parents, while the law firm advised against it. Monday's settlement ends the related litigation over the legal fees.

The couple's 25-year-old son, Michael Schaab, was killed when mentally ill gunman John Shick opened fire at UPMC's Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic on March 8, 2012. Shick also wounded five others before campus police fatally shot him.